![]() Quantum Break is perhaps the most perfect synthesis of game and television ever made, but it's also the realization of a dream from another era. Similarly, attempting to marry TV and games has long been something the medium has stumbled towards, ever since they started using live-action videos to break up the pixelated action and help piece together a larger story. Branching, choose-your-own-adventure style narratives are now a staple of video games-a lot of times, games are evaluated by how aware they are of the people who play them how accommodating they are to different proclivities and attention spans. What makes Quantum Break interesting to pick apart is the way it's so squarely built on two phenomena that video games have long fetishized: Player choice, and TV. Ironically, the most interesting stuff is tucked away in the many, many, emails and text excerpts strewn about the game's world, which exhibit the creator's characteristically goofy sense of humor and sometimes serve as a tongue-in-cheek bit of self-deprecation, as well as give the straightforward sci-fi story some much-needed dimension. The plot, like the show, is just good enough to keep you engaged, and the wibbly-wobbly time powers are just fun enough to keep you from getting annoyed whenever a big firefight is thrown your way. For as novel as Quantum Break's approach is, however, its story is only okay. It's not all-encompassing, mind you- Quantum Break is like a train on rails, and the choices you make at certain junctures will take you along a different track, but there are only so many of those, and so much television footage filmed. It's the sort of thing video games have wanted to do for a very long time. Lance Reddick and Aidan Gillen in the 'Quantum Break' show Microsoft/Remedy Entertainment (The game/show is a science fiction thriller, in which Shawn Ashmore plays Jack Joyce, a guy roped into a time-travel experiment by physicist Paul Sereene-played by Aidan "Littlefinger" Gillen-that ends up literally breaking Time Itself, setting up a doomsday scenario and also giving the two of them superpowers.) Smaller things you do in the game make their way to the show as well-maybe you erase a formula from a whiteboard, or find a small statue lying about-those subtle things will be reflected in the next episode you watch. At certain crucial moments, the game offers you a choice from which the game's narrative will split in a dramatic way-the first involves whether or not you will spare someone's life-and the repercussions spill out in both the game and the show. ![]() The show's story changes based on the decisions you make in the video game parts. The miniseries is interspersed with gameplay, so at certain points, you, the player, put down the controller and just watch the action unfold for a bit. ![]() ![]() While a lot of Quantum Break's story unfolds in traditional video game fashion-you shoot and explore, listen to characters chatter, and occasionally watch a scene play out where the CG versions of Shawn Ashmore, Aidan Gillen, et al make big, plot-shifting moves-there's another half that unfolds across a four-part live-action miniseries. Also unlike most other video games, Quantum Break has its big party trick: also being a TV show. ![]()
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